Author Archives

• Renewed ‘La Línea’ Investigations Further Implicate Guatemala Officials

  By kevodell on August 17, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Between May 2014 and April 2015, the criminal network known as “La Línea,” took in over 5.1 million quetzales ($666,000) in bribes, and the scheme cost the government at least 14.3 million quetzales ($1.85 million) in taxes. Alex Papadovassilakis writes… Read More ›

• The Case of “Lote Ocho”: Indigenous women hold corporations accountable for violence

  By kevodell on August 16, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Indigenous women in Guatemala are using the concept of extraterritorial obligations to hold corporations accountable for violence—and to set important precedents in human rights law. Andrea Bolaños Vargas and Andrea Suárez Trueba write an interesting and increasingly relevant article in… Read More ›

• Guatemala’s Murderous Leap Backward Is Enabled by Trump

  By kevodell on August 16, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Benoit Pierre Amedee María, known as ‘Benito,’ pictured during a graduation ceremony at the Ixil University. Photo: Giovanni Batz/provided for The Globe Post On August 10, a French development worker was shot to death execution-style in rural Guatemala, one of… Read More ›

• Laguna Larga: Evicted families struggle to survive

  By kevodell on August 10, 2020 • ( 0 )

  The Human Rights Ombudsperson’s Office and the law firm (BDH – Bufete de Derechos Humanos) demanded that the Guatemala state fulfilled its obligations under the ruling of the Inter-American Commisison for Human Rights (CIDH) with regard to the 111 families… Read More ›

• Three Urgent Policies For Achieving Sustainable Development in Guatemala

  By kevodell on August 3, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Decades ago, debates taking place among international organizations and countries around the globe were delayed in Latin America due to the dizzying implementation of neoliberalism. In Guatemala, these discussions were simply ignored: the country’s leaders faithfully believed in the directives… Read More ›

• Guatemala case reveals how corruption perpetuates itself in Central America

  By kevodell on July 28, 2020 • ( 1 )

  Eric L. Olson writes on the Univision News website about the ongoing attempts, by members of the Guatemala Congress, as well as the country’s business elite, to corrupt the judiciary.  Central America’s Northern Triangle Countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras have become… Read More ›

• Appointing Judges in Guatemala…From Prison

  By kevodell on July 20, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Guatemala is in the midst of a contentious legal battle, as networks of corrupt politicians and organized crime are trying to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to attack the country’s courts. They are also disrupting over 100 cases against government officials… Read More ›

• Bernardo Caal Xol is a prisoner of conscience – Amnesty International

  By kevodell on July 17, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Amnesty International has just recently declared the Q’eqchi’ Maya Indigenous leader and Guatemalan human rights defender, Bernardo Caal Xol, a prisoner of conscience, for having been wrongly imprisoned for more than two years. He had been defending the rights of… Read More ›

• COVID-19: “Because of the President, people think it is a joke”

  By kevodell on July 16, 2020 • ( 0 )

  The government announced a steady re-opening of the country and this scared the medical personnel at the temporary hospital in Parque de la Industria (‘Industry Park’) whp have fought each day against the COVID-19 illness and in the face of… Read More ›

• Behind the Fight to Hijack Guatemala’s Justice System

  By kevodell on July 13, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Ensuring impartial, professional, and honest officials in Guatemala’s highest courts is crucial to the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, and advancing the fight against corruption. Adriana Beltrán, of Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), outlines the various levels… Read More ›